Quisqueya Plaza (Manhattan)
Present name:None
Location:Plaza at Dyckman Street between Broadway and Seaman Avenue
Honoree: This plaza’s name honors the large Dominican American community of the surrounding Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods. Quisqueya, meaning “cradle of life,” is one of two aboriginal names for the island called La Isla Española (Hispaniola) by Christopher Columbus (1451-1506). In the 1950s there were relatively few Dominicans in New York, but from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, more immigrants came to the City from the Dominican Republic than from any other country. Today, three-quarters of all of America’s Dominicans live in the New York region, and Washington Heights is the largest Dominican community in the City. (Rodriguez)
LL:2022/54